So, the boyfriend loves my cooking (he got adorably excited about trying nooch, and has even enjoyed vegan mac 'n' cheese), and he will happily let me cook for us any time. He keeps a stash of vegan goodies in his apartment for me, and he recently bought a vegan cookbook so that he can cook for me more often when I come over. He's not interested in converting to veganism, but he's SUPER open and willing to eat vegan, try anything and everything, etc.

But here's the issue.

He's a triathlete, and his training is starting to go into the upswing. I know that he can be perfectly healthy and get more than enough protein via vegan foods, but he joked to me last night that we'd have to stop sharing meals as his training ramps up. He then amended that we could still share meals, but he'd just have to start eating lots of cans of chicken with it.

Gentlepeople, I need help. I need recipe suggestions, or cookbook suggestions, or anything, so that I can make him healthy meals that are exploding with protein and other great nutrition. Low fat is preferable (another teacher at my school just loaned me AFR so I can start trying some of those recipes), and he's ridiculous about carbs, so not too much carbs, ideally.

The issue, of course, is that I am NOT a triathlete (I'm barely even a fit person), so I don't need nearly as much protein as he does. I'd like to find recipes that can "scaffold"--so that I can make one recipe, but heap way more protein on his plate than on mine.

Basically, I need advice, suggestions, anything.

This was a really long rambly post. Thank you so much if you read through it!

_________________Your heart is a muscle the size of a fistKeep loving, keep fighting

Anything with tofu, tempeh, seitanSomething like a veggie curry or stir-fry might be good, because you could have more veggies and less of the protein, and he could pile on more of the protein on his plate

I like snacking on edamame, plenty of protein there. Also great in salads.

When I was pregnant I needed to cram in more protein than normal, and I can tell you that seitan is one way to go. I would make a batch of cherry sage sausages from VB (as an example), making it into 5 sausages instead of 4, and each sausage had 29 grams of protein. That's a lot of forkin' protein. And they only had 258 calories and 4.4 grams of fat. You could make a regular meal, then add seitan to his portion.

Have you looked into any resources for vegan bodybuilders and vegan athletes? There are a lot of websites and books geared specifically towards training heavily and building muscle on a vegan diet--many of them even have specific formulas and food lists. nomeatathlete.com might be a good starting point--not all of their recipes are vegan, but they clearly label the ones that are.

ETA: my husband is in semi-heavy training for Brazilian jiu jitsu and I feel your pain. A lot of times he'll keep a stash of chicken breasts or bison patties in the fridge and plunk a piece of meat on top of a vegan meal I made that already has like 20+ grams of protein in it. It makes me positively stabby but I don't want dinner to be a war zone, so I try to roll with it. Or at least not roll my eyes.

See if you can get Thrive by Brendan Brazier from your library if you don't already have it. He's a triathlete and your boyfriend may enjoy seeing that it is possible to be vegan while being a triathlete. It also has lots of yummy recipes as well.

_________________"I would love to be president of the United States. It's been my dream ever since I discovered what power was." ~ RandiJM, age 11-ish

I think a lot of things like curries, stir fries, or pasta could work by cooking a protein separately - tofu, tempeh, seitan, TVP, beans, lentils, whatever you like, then adding the desired amount to each serving. Make-your-own tacos or burritos are another great option. Think about the things you would suggest to someone cooking meals for their omni family, where meat could be cooked separately and added at the end, but in your case it's veggie protein instead of meat (unless he's serious about the canned chicken...!).

Also, maybe he can supplement with more snacks or smoothies or something like that, rather than relying on your shared meals to meet all of his protein needs.